Dickey had said that the party was looking forward to a “safe and productive convention next week” in Houston.
As Reported By StatesMan| Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Wednesday he is canceling the Republican Party of Texas’ in-person convention — scheduled for a city-owned convention center — as coronavirus cases continue to surge.
“The public health concern for our first responders, convention workers, and those who would have attended weighed heavily in our decision making,” Turner said.
The decision comes after the Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey had rebuffed a request from Turner that the party cancel plans for its in-person convention July 16-18 — which the city’s local health authority warned could be a “super spreader of the virus” — and go with a virtual event instead.
Dickey had said that the party was looking forward to a “safe and productive convention next week” in Houston.
But during a virtual City Council meeting Wednesday, Turner said he has directed the city’s legal department to work with the Houston First Corporation, which operates the George R. Brown Convention Center, to review the contract with the state party, with an eye to cancellation.
The cancellation of the event had become a political hot potato.
Turner, a Democrat, had avoided prohibiting Republicans from holding their live convention, and in an evening news appearance Monday in Dallas, Gov. Greg Abbott, Republican, indicated that he wouldn’t cancel it, either.
The party’s executive committee had discussed the consequences and safety measures against the business that needs to take place — much of it in person — in an event that is “more than just people getting together,” Abbott said in a live interview on KDFW.
Read more StatesMan
